Microsoft Is Celebrating 15 Years Of Xbox

Hard to believe, but the Xbox has been with us for a full 15 years at this point, and the folks over at Microsoft are celebrating with a bunch of in-game giveaways.

If the Xbox brand was a person, it would be just one year away from earning its driver's license, and that's pretty impressive. Nobody knew quite what to expect when Microsoft came onto the scene with its massive console and equally massive controllers and, today, the Xbox continues to go toe-to-toe with industry mainstays like Nintendo and PlayStation.

To celebrate this momentous occasion, team Xbox has invited everyone to share their memories from the past 1.5 decades with the #15YearsOfXbox tag, so feel free to throw that around on social media when reminiscing about your first time playing Halo, Gears of War, Forza and the like. And speaking of trademark Xbox games, a selection of titles are offering free in-game goodies for folks to grab and utilize to show off their support of all things Xbox.

For starters, Forza Horizon 3 is giving everyone a 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor boasting a special skin featuring green and black paint and the Xbox 15 logo. If you're a Horizon VIP, you'll get an additional truck in honor of Xbox's big celebration, though no particulars were offered.

Also available for a limited time are a pair of Rivals events, one for Forza Motorsport 6 and the other for Forza Horizon 3. Horizon will also have a special Bucket List Challenge available in the Pink Lakes area, so look for its Bucket List point and select "Celebrate #15YearsOfXbox."

The original announcement states that more special offers are coming in more games, so we'll just have to sit tight and see what all becomes available in the coming weeks. Various members of Team Xbox will also be hosting events for players looking to dive into multiplayer with the creators, so keep your attention tuned to your favorite Xbox game's social media to see what/when things are going down.

A lot can happen in 15 years. To drive that point home, Microsoft shared a whole bunch of stats concerning the Xbox brand, including an audience of 222,468,423 players. That's a lot of people getting mad at a lot of other people for using the Plasma Sword in Halo 2 competitive modes. Achievements have become a big part of the Xbox ecosystem, too, with a whopping 32,667,582,157 unlocked to date. Keep in mind that 'Chievos weren't even available on the original Xbox, so that's just two generations' worth of virtual trophies. Also, the highest Gamerscore at this point in time is 1,416,465 so, whoever you are, you just keep doing your thing.

And now, we turn to our readers. What's your first Xbox memory? What's your best? Let us know in the comments below.